In her famous article, Sculpture in the Expanded Field, published at the end of the 1970s, Rosalind Krauss noted that, “within the situation of postmodernism, practice is not defined in relation to a given medium – sculpture – but rather in relation to the logical operations on a set of cultural terms, for which, any medium – photography, books, lines on walls, mirrors or sculpture itself – might be used. Thus the field provides both for an expanded but finite set of related positions for a given artist to occupy and explore, and for an organization of work that is not dictated by the conditions of a particular medium.” In fact, when we use terms such as “new sculpture languages” or “new plastic languages” at Museion, we do so in the knowledge that this involves accepting the contemporary challenge of displaying the heterogeneity and pliable nature of today’s art categories to the public.
Door Leading to Many Directions
Roman Ondak, 1997/1997
MUSEION
The Prison of Santo Stefano, Cell II
Rossella Biscotti, 2011
MUSEION
In her series of sculptures titled The Prison of Santo Stefano (2011–14), Rossella Biscotti explores one of Italy’s most famous historical prisons in works consisting of lead imprints. Rossella Biscotti’s works seek to reactivate history by exploring personal and collective memories and become an opportunity to question not only how we look at the past, but also how we deal with the present.
We The People (detail)
by Danh Vo, 2011
MUSEION
The title of the project We the People comes from the first three words of the United States Constitution of 1787, and the work consists in the artist’s colossal, long-term undertaking of reproducing a life-size replica of the Statue of Liberty. In this case the ready-made used by the artist consists of hundreds of pieces of copper crafted using the same technique as the original.
Jukebox II
Tacita Dean (2000)
MUSEION
Jukebox II consists of a console, 3 CD changers holding 192 CDs, an amplifier, and four speakers. Starting with the prime meridian in Greenwich, the artist divided the circumference of the earth into eight segments of 45° each. The eight lines of longitude pass through a number of seaside towns and villages in Brazil, New Orleans, Alaska, Fiji, Japan, Bangladesh and Yemen. Dean had sound recordings made in each of these places starting punctually at noon on the last day of the year 1999 and lasting for 24 hours. Exhibition visitors can choose from 192 CDS available in the jukebox, each of which contains 60 audio clips of outdoor noises recorded in parallel in the eight different regions of the world. The sound of the selected place can be combined with a specific time of day, giving the user listening to these heterogeneous space-time pieces diverse impressions that interrupt the homogeneity and linear progression of his own experience of time. Jukebox II can be thought of as a temporal sound kaleidoscope.
Untitled (Invalidenstraße)
Klara Lidén, 2012
MUSEION
Klara Lidén creates architectural interventions and installations that exploit existing structures and materials such as cardboard, posters, sheet metal, drywall, and carpet scraps. With the rebellious spirit of an activist, the artist rethinks the places we traverse and inhabit, applying a very physical approach: here, for example, sculptures made of bits of tarmac created an unusual, eerie landscape which forged a relationship between the internal and external dimensions, forcing visitors to rethink and reappropriate public space in a new way.